Four years ago, Leftwing Idiot took me to meet his friend Atif whom he’d known for a long time as an activist, campaigner and social entrepreneur. At the time Touretteshero was still in its infancy but what we lacked in web presence we more than made up for with ideas.

Atif cooked us a delicious meal at his house and we talked in detail about what we wanted to achieve. He was incredibly encouraging. He was also extremely knowledgeable about all sorts of schemes for disabled people, like Access To Work, which I hadn’t even heard of at the time.

He’s had a hand in all sorts on interesting and successful projects. Most recently it’s been with the assistive technology company DnA. Their training for disabled and dyslexic adults, whether in education or at work, is tailored to suit each individual, based on how they prefer to learn.

I’ve been particularly struck by Atif’s quote on their homepage:

“Normalising difference requires just two things: the celebration of everyone, and your own enthusiasm for change.”

I’m always talking about celebrating the humour and creativity of Tourettes, and what Atif says fits beautifully with our mission to change the world “One tic at a time.”

This year’s National Diversity Awards are coming up now and we’re very excited that DnA has been nominated for Diverse Company of the Year 2014! An incredible 95% of their staff team identify themselves as being disabled or neurodiverse. Last year they were just a hundred votes short of winning the Award so this year Atif’s asked for my help with spreading the word.

Atif helped us with Touretteshero at a crucial point in its development so we’re keen to do the same thing for him. That’s why I’m asking you to vote for DnA. There’s not much time, voting closes tomorrow, so please, if you can, go here and place your vote.

I’m going to be Tweeting about this and sharing it on Facebook – if you could do the same that’d be great too. And if what DnA offers sounds like it might be of interest to you, I’m sure Atif would love to hear from you.

“I love voting for cool cats.”